Wednesday - I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone - New LP

Format: New LP Label: Dead Oceans Cat. No. DOC326 Barcode: 656605162614 Released: 07/04/2023

I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone is Wednesday’s second full- length album and first as a full band. The Asheville, NC quintet (guitarist/ vocalist Karly Hartzman, lead guitarist Daniel Gorham, pedal steel guitarist Xandy Chelmis, bassist Margo Schultz and drummer Alan Miller) maximizes the dark dissonance of a three guitar attack to highlight the emotionality of Hartzman’s bell-clear vocals and wisps of half-recalled memories and literary references that make up her lyrics. I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone’s eight songs meld elements of shoegaze, grunge, indie pop & southern American culture into a uniquely personal style of modern rock music that resonates with power and tenderness.

The ever-darkening and deepening of Wednesdays’ sound on I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone owes a debt of influence to The Swirlies, Arthur Russell, Red House Painters, Tenniscoats, Ana Roxanne, Acetone, and their continued collaboration with MJ Lenderman (who lends backing vocals to the songs “Billboard” &and“November”). I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone was recorded at Hartzman’s home with engineering assistance from her roommate Colin Miller. The depth and clarity of the recordings balance the distorted volume of Wednesday’s live performances with the intimacy of Hartzman’s voice. Her words hold the center of the chaos, unobscured by the power of the band.

Hartzman describes her lyrics as “attempts to access old personal memories & do them justice through prose, with inspiration from the writings of Richard Brautigan, Flannery O’Connor, David Berman and Tom Robbins, and movies like Steel Magnolias.”